Color blind

I recently got accused of making a racial slur at work. A bunch of us were in the lunch room eating when I joked about stealing a bite of someone else's food. A little banter went on and then I made the comment that here in Kentucky, we know how to fend for ourselves and we would just "run you over in the river" and take the food. I was meaning that we "hillbillies" who so often get accused of being dumb and barefoot, know how to hold our own, and usually don't miss many meals. A comment was made back in a very threatening tone that included the words "drive by" and "shoot your ___", letting me know that I had said something that was definately taken the wrong way. Here I was more or less slamming us hillbillies when the 3 African American girls in the lunchroom took it as a racial slur to their culture. Well, word got around and the story evolved and then the HR Representative of the Hospital called me up to ask about the incident, which by this time was 2 weeks ago.
The night it occurred, when I realized that they had missunderstood, I went to each of them and tried to be sure to apologize for the missunderstanding and to make ammends for hurting their feelings. I explained my thoughts and explained that I was talking to them the same way that I talk to anyone else, not realizing that they may be sensitive to something like that.
This whole situation has been really hard on me. I was hurt, angry, and mad. Hurt that they talked about me behind my back, attacking my integrity as a person, accusing me of being a racist. Angry that they didn't come to me if it was still bothering them, so we could work it out. And MAD that me of all people, was being accused of being racist, and that the story had evolved into a whole different story by the time it had been talked about for 2 weeks. The comment that was made to me, if anything, was the one that would be considered harrassment. I apologized for my wrong and tried to make amends, then went on treating them the same. Yet they talk about me and accuse me of things I did not intend, start treating me differently, and say that I was the one who wronged them. I thought this is not fair, I am the victum in this situation. I began to see why people were racist.....because of bad attitudes like that, ones that will jump to play the race card any chance they get.
Then the Lord helped me see...all things happen for a reason. If this is my burden to bare, maybe I can help get the message out that we all need to be a little more color blind. That it is not necessarily always white people who are racist. That we should forget the past and forgive. God made us all, there is no one greater than the other in his eyes. We are all his beloved. We should chose our friends and who we associate with based on their moral code and values, not their color of skin. We should love all human beings, helping each other be the best we can be, striving to draw closer to him.
Please friends, pray for me in this situation that I may not let Satan use this situation to cause that type of hate and mistrust to creep in my life. Pray that they will see Christ in me and see that I am sincere and that they totally misjudged the situation. May the Lord use me to work something great out of something so negative.